Fulfilling Grace
Exodus 34:5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and
stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord
passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and
gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by
no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth
generation. 8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and
worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let
my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon
our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 10 And he said,
Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as
have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people
among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing
that I will do with thee.
Who is the God you serve?
Have you ever heard a message that you have heard before but it was said
in a different way and let you see God in a new light? That happened to me last night. I love prophecy, unknown tongues and the
gifts of the Holy Spirit but I’m thankful for my sojourn into the Southern
Baptist environs of Suffolk, Virginia.
We full gospel ministers and churches can get just a bit arrogant about
our spiritual gifts or perhaps we’ve been to some dead non-Pentecostal churches
before and that has tainted our outlook and given us a jaded look at our Baptist
brethren. Whatever your take on this
peculiar point let’s not forget that they might look at you just as
strangely.
Last night I heard a pastor from Jacksonville, Florida
preach a message about the God who sees our end from the beginning. It was all about a God who watched you
completely miss the mark (can you say sin) and yet He didn’t toss you off the
team. I’ve been pigeon holed for years
by leaders great and small and saints who figured I was too flighty, too full
of jokes, too busy doing secular work or too full of myself. The general statement if someone hears me (or
thinks they hear me) is, “That’s just Jay.”
I suppose we should ask, “Who is Jay?”
The preacher last night said he was a stutterer and eighteen
years ago when he accepted his call to the ministry and his father asked him to
read scripture – the Twenty Third Psalm – he took five minutes to get through
it and mangled it. He was so ashamed for
destroying a verse he knew by heart that he complained to God on the way home
and said, “If you want me to be your preacher then why would you make the one
part of my body that you need for ministry, broken?” In one of those moments of clarity and grace
God told him that He would either heal the flaw or leave it intact and make him
prosper in ministry in spite of it. I
watched that man rattle off scriptures and Bible truths last night with a
clarity and speed that would have made a rapper envious. Certainly God (as He once informed Moses) is
the creator of the tongue.
I could say that I know who and what I am but that would be
incorrect. I see who I was and I see who
I am but I only imperfectly see who I am becoming. God sees all His children at all seasons of
their lives at the same time. He’s not
surprised you missed His mark so badly but He also knows you won’t
tomorrow. While you are looking at the
man I was and maybe even the man I am, God is pursuing the man I will be. I’ve seen pastors, bishops, apostles and
prophets fail to give opportunities to others to shine because they do not see
that person as God does. It may not be
your responsibility to make my journey to excellence your number one concern,
but is it really your job to hold me back and deny my opportunities to
grow…simply because I might miss the mark?
I’m not writing this out of bitterness or a sense of
betrayal because I feel none of those things.
I am at a place in Christ where I know that I know that I know that
there is nothing anyone can do to hold me back or prevent my God promised
future. That wasn’t always the case and
there were some long dry years that could have been made easier by a nudge in
the right direction or a regular opportunity to bloom, but those seasons have
made me who I am and even if I could I’m not sure I would change any of them. I am grateful for the words of encouragement
that I received from a few insightful people who kept me from walking off in
despair but all in all I am full of joy for my life and future in our God.
You might ask, “What does any of this have to do with the
verses above?” It has to do with the
fact that Israel like us is often disrespected or cast aside while they await
God’s clock to move back around to a renewed relationship. It has to do with the fact that God is
eternal, omnipotent and omnipresent. It
has to do with the fact that God is not going to put up with a superior
attitude on our part when we have no reason to feel superior and rather have
every reason to feel insignificant, grateful and humble. In the scripture above Moses has spent whole
chapters telling God how much He wants to see Him in all of His glory. The experience would kill Moses but he wanted
to experience it nonetheless. In God’s
grace He allowed Moses to have a taste of his desire but it leaves him
permanently changed and transfigured.
This is what we must keep in mind. The more time you spent with God the more you
will become changed and more like Him.
In verse six above God Himself proclaimed, “The Lord, The Lord God,
merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the
fourth generation.” He declared Himself
and made no bones about it. Yahweh! Yahweh El!
Merciful and gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and
truth!
Do you know that about your God? Do others know that about YOU? The god that the Muslims worship is said to
be unknowable and capricious. Capricious
is just another word that means, “Not to be trusted.” Our God can be trusted; our God will press
into our lives to bring us an expected end.
Glory to our God in the Highest!!!
Because God is gracious and loving He accepted Moses’ intercession for
the stiff necked Israelites and began to personally lead them again. I get so frustrated by SO CALLED Christians
who bash other Christians for failing to live up to scripture. Thank God Christ came to save me apart from my
scriptural obedience and thank God He continues to work in me daily until I
attain that obedience in my life.
I don’t know what your God means to you but I believe verse
10 above, “10 And he said, Behold, I make
a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done
in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art
shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with
thee.”
More than thirty years ago Apostle Joseph Sims told us to
write a letter to God and tell God your heart’s desire. We had been studying the works and ministry
of Moses and it inspired me to write a letter to God and say I wanted to be
like Moses and have a relationship with God where He and I would be friends and
He would talk to me ‘face to face.’ The
years have come and gone but I never forgot the letter or the fact that 15
years later God told me to make myself a staff patterned after the one Moses
carried. Verse 10 says to me, “Behold my
son, I make a covenant before all your people and will do marvels. They will see my works like it has never been
seen before and the nations will recognize that I am with you for it is a
fearful and awesome thing that I will do with you.”
What does all this mean to me? It means that no matter who you think you see
in me, you do not see the me that I see.
God once told me to duck when I entered a building so I would not hit my
head on the 10 foot door jamb. When I
questioned Him on it He said, “Do not think that you are only as tall as the
body you live in. I have made you much
more.” I do not say these things in
arrogance or a feeling of self accomplishment because as Jesus said in John
15:5, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
I say them because they are true and sure and because God sees the me
that will be and not the me that you see.
What does He see in you?
Negotiating Grace
Numbers 32:1 Now the children of Reuben and the children
of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of
Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle;
2 The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and
to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, 3 Ataroth,
and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and
Nebo, and Beon, 4 Even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation
of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle: 5 Wherefore,
said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy
servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan.
God promised great blessings to the children of Israel if
they would continue to walk before Him faithfully. Regardless of how strong or weak they were,
they promised to be His faithful servants in all things. We all tend to promise God anything in an
attempt to obtain the promises we desire from Him. Sometimes we are even aware of our own
character traits that will conspire against us and prevent us from fully
obeying His Word. There have been a lot
of attacks against Israel over the centuries and for the most part the body of
Christ has behaved abominably toward the Jews.
They are God’s chosen people and if I wanted to I could produce scripture
after scripture that will show their time is not over nor has God forsaken
them.
I can also even more easily show scriptures that reveal us
to be the mongrel dogs of the life of God, the WILD olive branch that was
grafted, adopted in. God never cut off
the tame olive branch, He simply loved us enough to build us a room off to the
side so we might experience His love. We
are the adopted son who took advantage of the fact that the natural son became
angry and ran off to make his way in the world. In his absence we have taken over his room and
instead of respecting his belongings we have thrown most of them out as if they
didn’t matter at all.
We have become adults, lived our lives and grown old in our
adopted Father’s home and it will soon be time to return to where all men must
eventually go. Some of us still treat
our big brother with contempt and arrogance while others are beginning to
discover that all those books and letters in his room were valuable and
worthwhile after all. It’s almost time
for us to move into the homes built specifically for us. Will we leave anything behind for our wayward
brother so he might use it and know that we loved him when he stops his
wandering and returns home as he has begun to do?
Every one of us makes poor decisions from time to time. That is the nature of our imperfect lives and
thought processes. The miracle of grace
is that God can use those mistakes and build on them or use them to correct our
mistakes. Moses was leading the children
of Israel into the promised land when Reuben and Gad realized that they were
happy with the piece of property they were currently traveling through. God had His reasons for wanting Israel all on
one side of the Jordan river. There were
no bridges in those days and fording the river was a difficult and dangerous
task. Rivers isolate and Reuben and Gad
were beginning to draw back from the national unity of Israel.
If I had been Reuben I think I would have taken my father's
prophecy to heart and sought to change it.
I would not have done those things that were guaranteed to draw me away
from a closer walk with God. As for Gad,
Jacob’s prophecy to him was one of strength that failed leading to conquest, “A
troop that shall be overcome by a troop.”
Ruben and Gad’s problem was the same as Israel’s problem when Jesus came
into Jerusalem. They wanted what they
had but God wanted so much more for them.
Without spiritual eyes to see they could only judge the natural and by
natural judgment the land on this side of the river is better for us. When God says the other side is better, don’t
argue and when times get hard, don’t murmur.
Things ARE better on the other side.
Instead of holding on to old things, suck it up and make the move. Is it frightening? It can be.
Is it difficult? Probably, and
yet the you who will become is worth all the trouble.
Proverbs 3:8 says, “"Be not wise in thine own eyes:
fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and
marrow to thy bones."
Numbers 32:6 And Moses said unto the children of Gad and
to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit
here? 7 And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from
going over into the land which the Lord hath given them? 8 Thus did your
fathers, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to see the land. 9 For when they
went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart
of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the Lord
had given them. 10 And the Lord 's anger was kindled the same time, and he
sware, saying, 11 Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty
years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto
Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: 12 Save Caleb
the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have
wholly followed the Lord. 13 And the Lord' s anger was kindled against Israel,
and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the
generation, that had done evil in the sight of the Lord, was consumed. 14 And,
behold, ye are risen up in your fathers 'stead, an increase of sinful men, to
augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel. 15 For if ye turn away
from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye shall
destroy all this people.
Moses had the same problem as Joshua and others. He was so used to leading the Children of
Israel that he didn’t always take major decisions directly to God. To be sure he warned Gad and Reuben of what
might happen if they failed to fully support and assist their brethren; but
scripture does not show him approaching God for wisdom in this area. How much more difficult would the campaigns
become because Reuben and Gad left their wives and children behind while they followed
their brethren over the river. They
would now be outside the camp and away from Israel’s protection if raiders
should come and the hearts of the men who would go over to fight would never
feel like they were fighting for THEIR land…they had that already. Wouldn’t it have been better to have all
stayed together while they were on the move?
Even Christians quote Romans 12:2 which says, “And be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Reuben and Gad’s decision might have been
acceptable or good in the eyes of Moses but was it perfect, lacking
nothing? I don’t believe so. They had to build cities to protect
themselves and places for the cattle. It
would have been better and stronger to have traveled together in unity (Psalm
133:1).
Grace For Provision
Ruth 2:1 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a
mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz. 2 And
Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears
of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go,
my daughter. 3 And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the
reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz,
who was of the kindred of Elimelech.
I was born in Seattle, Washington. I remember when we bought a ‘color’ TV. It was a huge 19 inch. Our phones all were rotary dial and it was a
big thing when my dad ordered a push button phone even though it looked just
like the rotary phone except for the dial.
My sister Barbara lived with us then and taught me how to tie my
shoes. She got married when I was 5 and
left to move to Michigan. I’ve since
forgiven her husband. I loved Halloween
and one year filled an entire pillowcase full of candy. My mom made me give half of it to my cousin
who didn’t get as much. I’ve since
forgiven my mom.
I live in Suffolk, Virginia.
There is a 44” flat screen TV on the wall in my bedroom. It’s not very big today. My phone is 4” x 2.5” x 3/8” and I can talk
to anyone in the world with it. I talked
to Africa just this week. It doesn’t
have any buttons or dials and has more memory in a card smaller than my
fingernail than my first full sized computer had in a hard drive as big as my
Bible. My sister Barbara lives in
Seattle now and sometimes I give her advice.
Sometimes she gives me advice too.
I still know how to tie my shoes.
I absolutely detest Halloween because it makes Satan look cute and he is
not cute; he’s deadly.
Somewhere between those two paragraphs I found the Lord
(well, He found me and had mercy on me), got married and raised a family. I have had several jobs and focused on just
one…ministry. I have died to self,
revived and died again many times over the years. Somewhere in the midst of it all I have
learned to trust in Him all the more and have begun to learn exactly who and
what I am in Him. That thought might
make others think I have delusions of grandeur but we in Christ should know
just who and what we really are. I have
failed so many times that I thought I had a doctorate in it. My title should have been, “Bishop JR Staab,
PhD, DD, OMG, LOL. Okay, I made most of
those up.
My point is that from the guy in the first paragraph to the
guy in the second and third I have become a completely different guy and none
of it would have happened without God’s help.
We expect those around us to ‘get it.’ We offer no grace and wonder why
this world and especially this country is so messed up. I’ll tell you why; we have failed them in the
grace department. In the book of Ruth we
have a woman who had everything the world could have offered. She was nobility and wealthy in her own
country and chose to hold on to an invisible God and a wounded elderly
mother-in-law rather than all the wealth of a pagan kingdom. Most of us wouldn’t have given her the time
of day.
In verse 2 she makes a statement that betrays her faith in
God and assurance of her position in His love, “…let me go and find grace in
the field of the one in whose eyes I will find grace.” Her statement is not one of boldness and
taking charge but one of petition to her mother-in-law. She is seeking Naomi’s permission for the
opportunity to beg and glean on her mother-in-law’s behalf. Would any of us do such a thing? I wonder if our comment would be, “Look old
woman, you ought to be happy that I’m even going out to get something to
eat.” The average Israelite would have
spit on the road in front of her but she had humbled herself before all their
sight.
She and Naomi must have had some great Bible Studies. Her understanding of grace was not only
toward the owner of the field but toward the God she had chosen to obey. She knew that her only hope as a detested
Moabite was God’s grace. Before I
continue let me ask you a couple questions.
Would you have humbled yourself to the point that if someone cursed and
spit on you your trust would still be in God?
No? You failed. Would you have left the comfort of your home
to follow after this bitter and angry old woman and a brand new God? No?
You failed. For me today,
probably yes. For me yesterday…uh … no..
Ruth 2:8 Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my
daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide
here fast by my maidens: 9 Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap,
and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not
touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that
which the young men have drawn. 10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself
to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that
thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
Boaz was a saint of God.
Today he would have been one of those Christians who not only talk a
good game but live it and are willing to die by it. He was an honest business man, a gracious
leader and a redeemer of lost souls.
Ruth couldn’t even imagine why he would look at her. She knew full well what Israel thought of her
people. They were the offspring of Lot
who refused to come to their Israeli brethren’s assistance and even chose to
combat them and use trickery to defeat them.
God had cursed Moab and ordered that they not be allowed into the
tabernacle of the Lord through the tenth generation. Ruth’s submission, surrender and service
brought a tikkun, a miraculous mending to the people of Moab.
You have a choice before God. You can be wicked and say, “What’s yours is
mine and what’s mine is mine. You can be
lawful and say, “What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine; or you can be
righteous and say, “What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is yours.” Ruth stood before Naomi and chose righteousness. Because of her cHessed (lovingkindness) God
brought her before Boaz and he in his righteousness obeyed his heart. The Jewish world at that time was offended by
the marriage but could not prevent it.
Ruth’s grandson Jesse was ashamed by it but David, the greatest king of
Israel reaped the reward of that cHessed.
The lineage of Jesus contains Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and
Bathsheeba. One slept with her
father-in-law. One was a
prostitute. One was cursed by God and
one cheated on her husband. When you
speak of grace and assault God’s people…you have failed Him. When you speak of grace and curse sinners…you
have failed Him. When you speak of grace
and fail to lead sinners to redemption…you have failed Him. We are in the dispensation of Grace and God
Himself will hold you to blame if you fail to love and minister grace to those
in need. Never forget. Righteous indignation is as dirty as the
deepest sin.
Ruth 2:11 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath
fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the
death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and
the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not
heretofore. 12 The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of
the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
Only when you bless and do not curse will God trust you to
accomplish the greatest works of faith and mercy in His name. We have the honor of blessing others and the
shame of cursing. Will you choose honor
or shame? This world is coming to a
close as we know it. Our politicians and
leaders no longer trust God for wisdom and guidance. They are filled with wrath and shame. Will you pray until revival comes to Washington
or will you hide yourself from their pain and wait until judgment comes. The choice is yours. Learn well how to trust God beloved. More than anything else these days the world
needs faith and grace. I pray you do not
let them down.
Be strong beloved.
Bishop J
